24 THE SAD PLIGHT OF BEITISH FORESTRY 



on 1000 acres, five or six men will find employment on 

 a similar extent of woodland. 



I cannot close this paper — too long already — without 

 a parting reference to the game question. If it be the 

 case, as I believe it is, that the very existence of landed 

 property, as we have known and enjoyed it, is ttoeatened 

 by the operation of the death-duties, surely it is high 

 time for proprietors to turn to the best account the 

 resources of their estates. It will be admitted that, 

 speaking generally, woodland is an undeveloped source 

 of revenue. I have endeavoured to show that this great 

 source of wealth may be developed without sacrificing 

 either the interests of sport or the peculiar beauty of 

 parks. But there is one creature figuring largely in 

 bags of game, whereof the presence is everlastingly 

 incompatible with remunerative forestry — the rabbit, to 

 wit. Let the greater excommunication be pronounced 

 upon this most destructive and almost irrepressible 

 pest. Just as Philip the Second sentenced the whole 

 of the people of the Netherlands to death, so let us 

 issue a mortal ban upon rabbits, but with this important 

 difference, that, whereas Philip's decree fell short of 

 complete execution, ours ought to be carried to the 

 uttermost effect. 



'But,' I hear somebody grumble, 'is not this an 

 interference with legitimate sport? Rabbit-shooting is 

 capital fun, and you propose to put an end to it.' Well, 

 people who want to enjoy rabbit-shooting must do so 

 by enclosing warrens, otherwise we must do without 

 profitable woodland. No landowner who has had the 

 courage and taken the pains to calculate honestly what 

 rabbit-shooting costs him will be disposed to differ with 



